The Mozilla Foundation today published its Internet Health Report 2018. In a nutshell, the report calls for the regulation of large companies such as: Google, Amazon and Facebook.
It seems that the release date of the Internet Health Report is not accidental at all, since it "coincided" with the day that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, will testify before Congress.
Although large companies such as Alibaba and Tencent in China have "helped billions realize the benefits of the Internet", the report calls for legislation to address some factors to eliminate the consolidation of power and monopoly business practices that undermine privacy. and internet competition. ”
"They exclude competitors, limiting innovation in the process," the report said.
"As their ability to understand vast amounts of data increases through the advancement of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, they are likely to move into adjoining businesses through vertical integration into hardware, software, infrastructure, cars, media, unless we find a a way to stop them. ”
Governments should implement anti-competitive anti-competitive laws and review anti-monopoly anti-monopoly models when implementing regulations for technology giants, according to the report.
The Internet Health Report does not attempt to examine and rate the "health" of the Internet or diagnose problems. Instead, it explores important issues that the report's authors believe contributed to the current Internet environment and examines how these trends are affecting people's lives in the real world.
The fake news and propaganda, (see Facebook), as well as weak Internet security (IoT), refer to the report between trends affecting the real world.
"By 2020 we will have up to 30 billion devices, including unsecured webcams, baby monitors and other devices that can be used as a [data collection] weapon," the report says. "With every device without a password the internet becomes a little more fragile and dangerous.”
The authors of the report cited as an example the use of malware Mirai, which gained control over a number of Internet devices (IoT) and played an important role in a DDoS attack on Dyn.
The Internet Health Report states that the censorship and online harassment have gotten worse, but also some good news regarding internet access, data encryption and affordability.
Overall, the report finds that the number of Internet users around the world continues to increase, but it also states that prices should continue to decline in order to gain even more access.
The Internet Health report is an open source initiative implemented with the help of Mozilla Techniques, Digital Rights Activists and Researchers.
To read the entire report, visit the website internethealthreport.org. The first report was released in January of 2017.
